


Updates

by Shanejayell



Category: Newsflesh Trilogy - Mira Grant
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-05
Updated: 2013-01-05
Packaged: 2017-11-23 19:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/625728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shanejayell/pseuds/Shanejayell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the aftermath of the events of the Newsflesh Trilogy, the news must carry on. And what is going on with the CDC?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Updates

Disclaimer: I own none of the Newsflesh series or concepts, they all belong to Mira Grant aka Seanan McGuire. Don't sue me, I'm broke anyway. This story is set after Blackout and has spoilers for the entire Newsflesh trilogy.

Updates

I'm still trying to get my head around everything we've learned in just a few weeks. The Center for Disease Control has been experimenting with Kellis-Amberlee to make it stronger? And the CDC was behind a plot to control the federal government? And Georgia Mason is BACK FROM THE DEAD as a clone?

Some days you just don't want to get out of bed...

-From Down the Rabbit Hole, the blog of Alice Hastings, September 21, 2041

Alice Hastings followed the four troops, the slightly mousy young newsie doing her best to keep up. She wore typical gear for her job, long sleeved shirt and trousers to protect from zombies grabbing her, sunglasses to keep any splatter from getting into her eyes. Her light brown hair was almost blond from the bleaching she got regularly, especially when she didn't get the time to dye it. How she got here... well, that was complicated.

The blog entry on 'After the End Times' from Georgia Mason that revealed the CDC was the head of a conspiracy to manipulate the US hit the country like a bombshell. Well, actually, it was the President of the United States guest blogging on her site that did it. Of course, immediately afterwards the shit hit the fan. A mob fell on several remote CDC branches, in one case breaking in and killing CDC employees.

Now, Alice was as behind vigilante justice as the next woman. Hell, if what Georgia reported was true and the CDC was behind all the major outbreaks since the Rising, not to mention them murdering people with Reservoir Conditions, she'd be right there helping out. But there were innocent people in those CDC offices, poor fools like Kelly Connolly who had no idea their bosses were corrupt.

National Guard units were deployed to the CDC buildings, officially to protect the facilities and people inside. Unofficially they were also keeping the doctors under house arrest as the government tried to weed out the guilty employees from the innocent. And all of this was made even more complicated by the fact the conspiracy was willing to use Kellis-Amberlee as a weapon.

What was Alice doing here? Well, that was complicated too. She was a newsie for After the End Times, who had been hired on shortly after Shawn Mason, Becks and the others went underground. She was a Beta, helping with other stories while doing her own thing on her 'Down the Rabbit Hole' blog, but she got some decent stories out. Enough for Mahir to recognize her talent and move her up to a higher rung.

In the aftermath of the CDC blog post, After the End Times was THE site for news, and they had a reputation for honesty that couldn't be beat. AS the CDC mess unfolded VP Richard Cousins asked After the End to report on what was going down, to help reassure the American public that all reasonable steps were being taken and the government was being entirely transparent on the situation.

And guess who got tapped to follow a raid on a CDC facility?

Alice stayed close to Seanan Ward, the liaison officer that was assigned to her. "Why are we breaking in through the fence?" she asked as the six man team worked to bridge the electric current and cut the chain link fence.

Seanan smiled slightly, the redhead scanning their surroundings. "We're hoping to take the director by surprise," she answered her mildly, "there's some risk he has live samples of Kellis-Amberlee available."

"I see," Alice nodded slightly, "but do you really think he'd use it?"

"Well, his involvement with the conspiracy means he's already in deep," Seanan shrugged, "he might think he has nothing left to loose."

"Okay we're ready," the officer nearest the fence noted. "Stay in single file as we cross the lawn. Security should be down due to a hack, but better to be careful," Ash Jameson ordered.

"Come on," Seanan stayed close to Alice, a comforting presence as they filed through the hole then across the green, manicured lawn. The CDC building was a white block in the twilight, designed with no low windows to help stave off Zombie attacks. And, probably not coincidentally, to keep normal folks out too.

They reached the side door, and the same officer who bypassed the fence produced a small box and keycard. Herbert deftly slid the card in, then studied the keypad intently. He typed a few moments, then the lock pinged slightly and the door swung open. "Good to go," he reported.

Inside the CDC was a maze, but that was to be expected. All CDC facilities were designed that way, because zombies had notoriously bad short term memory and would be unable to navigate it. They advanced as a group, following a map provided by agents of the EIS, who had infiltrated the CDC in the past. They walked down white halls past white doors, the place eerily quiet as they advanced.

"I don't like this," Sgt. Takashi Kenneth muttered, the Texan's soft drawl giving his voice a sweet sort of sound.

"Where is everybody?" Alice had to ask, just as a low moan echoed down the hall.

"Oh crap," Seanan sighed, all of them recognizing the sound of a zombie.

"Move!" Ash ordered, urging them down the hallway towards their destination and away from the zombies. They raced down the hall even as they could hear the zombies getting louder behind them, Herbert checking the digital map they were provided.

"Here!" Herbert said as they reached a unmarked door.

Ash didn't hesitate, shoving the door open as the moans up the hall got louder. They rushed in, cramming into the office, then flinched as the smell of death washed over them.

"Oh damn," Alice hissed softly.

The local director of the CDC was slumped over his desk, apparently having shot himself in the head to prevent amplification. Alice inched closer, seeing a suicide note on the desk as she covertly got a few shots. She assumed it was the typical 'woe is me, I'm misunderstood' thing. She would be more sympathetic, except it appeared he had filled the building with zombies.

"Well, this mission is a bust," Ash sighed.

"Do you think the outbreak in here was intentional?" Alice had to ask.

"Hard to say," Herbert mused as the team swiftly searched the office, "could be deliberate, but someone dying in a accident can happen. All it really takes is one zombie under the right conditions, after all."

"Got his files at least," Takashi noted as he finished downloading critical information from the desktop PC.

"So?" Seanan asked as they gathered by the desk and tried to ignore the smelly corpse, "what now, sir?"

"Get out, with the data and hopefully with the team intact," Ash said honestly. He looked at Herbert, "Is there a alternate way out?"

"We have general schematics of CDC labs," Herbert said reluctantly, "but there are variations from lab to lab."

"So we don't know for sure if the maps are right," Alice noted.

"Pretty much," Takashi agreed.

"Well, I vote we do not go out the way we came, considering there are zombies there," Alice added dryly.

"The other door from this office," Herbert nodded to the door opposite the one they entered in, "leads towards the labs. Good bet we'll find more zombies, but there's also emergency exits."

"Miss Alice, stay to the center of the group," Ash ordered then addressed the rest of the team, "and let's go."

The corridor was quiet, but off in the distance they could hear the low moan indicating zombies were out there. They moved down the hall steadily, passing the silvery windows that were one way mirrors. One or two rooms had someone in them, the poor souls already having become zombies.

'Wonder if they can see us?' Alice thought as they hurried along. Her former boss Georgia Mason had a Reservoir condition in her eyes, leaving them much like zombies, and she could see a much broader range of light. Also sensitive as hell, but...

"Movement," Seanan called out softly.

A zombie had shuffled around the corner up ahead, then upon seeing them began to lurch towards them. Calmly Ash brought his rifle up and fired, splattering it's brains against the wall and killing it, again.

"Wish we didn't have to do that," Ash muttered as they hurried along.

"Huh?" Alice blinked then realized what he meant. The rifle would draw the attention of any zombies in this wing.

Almost cued by her thoughts the moans of the zombies echoed off in the distance, getting louder. The group followed the map as fast as they could, despite the confusing sameness of the white corridors. Eventually they made it to the doors, the five of them feeling a bit of relief.

"Keying door now," Herbert said, attaching his computer to the device. As none of them were staff they weren't registered with the biosensors, which meant they needed to 'coax' the device a bit.

"You'd think it'd be designed to let any non-infected out," Takashi muttered as he and the others kept a eye on the hall, waiting for the zombies to come.

"They may not have wanted unauthorized people to be able to escape," Seanan noted dryly.

Alice nodded grimly, pistol in hand. "Like when Shaun Mason and his crew were trapped in one," she noted dryly. The first zombie staggered around the corridor as she muttered, "Oh crap."

Takashi dropped this one with his rifle, but there were more coming right behind it. He, Ash and Seanan took aim and fired, carefully going for head shots to conserve bullets. The bodies dropped, slowing the progress of the zombies, but they kept advancing steadily.

"Herbert, progress?" Ash snapped.

"Nearly there," he answered as Herbert typed away.

Alice had her pistol in hand and was firing, the training she got with the site Irwin's paying off. She was a decent shot, though not on the army's level, and she was dropping her fair share of the zombies. As she shot she mentally kept track of her ammo... if things went really bad, she wanted to save a bullet for herself.

"Herbert," Seanan growled as she fired.

"Almost got it," Herbert answered then there was the beautiful sound of the door unlocking. "It's open! Go!"

Firing a lot more wildly all three troopers went full auto, hosing the zombies with bullets to damage and slow down as many of them as they could, then the group raced into the passage, slamming the door behind them. They jogged up to the exit door and were each blood tested, then once the lights went green they spilled out onto the lawn of the CDC.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

So, it looks like the CDC branches are going to be more trouble than anyone anticipated. While we have a apparently honest head of the organization in Washington, the same staff is running most of the branch offices. Staff that, frankly, was willingly behind the CDC's plan to control the government and use the KA virus as a weapon.

Representatives of the Feds are going to negotiate with the branch managers, as I understand it, and try to get the crooked ones to surrender peacefully. If that doesn't work, though, there are gonna have to be more raids like the one I joined in on.

Apparently Ash liked how I handled myself, as he's invited me to accompany them on the next raid. Which my first reaction was, "Oh HELL no." But... it's a hell of a story, and the vid I got of the raid is already getting a lot of hits.

God... I sound like a Irwin!

-From Down the Rabbit Hole, the blog of Alice Hastings, September 22, 2041

Notes: While I liked Blackout, the final book of the Newsflesh trilogy, it left some dangling plot threads. The CDC, while defeated and exposed, was left functioning, and cleaning out the badguys from the innocent staff would be one hell of a job. There's also the whole Florida situation, and if the government would attempt to reclaim the region, and probably other plot threads too.

Ash is named for Ash of the Evil Dead series, Herbert is from the Re-animator films, and Takashi is from Highschool of the Dead. Seanan is intended as a female version of Shaun of the Dead, as well as a tip of the hat to series author Seanan McGuire.


End file.
